KaOS Linux 2026.02 was released today as the February 2026 ISO snapshot for this independent GNU/Linux distribution, which uses Arch Linux’s pacman package manager, and the first release to ship with the Niri Wayland compositor.

After using the KDE/Plasma desktop environment by default for more than 12 years since its initial release under the name of KdeOS, the KaOS Linux distribution will no longer ship with its unique Plasma desktop setup, as the devs do not want to use the systemd init system anymore in the distro.

Instead, they put a Niri/Noctalia setup into the KaOS Linux 2026.02 release, while retaining the distribution’s unique look and still offering users access to popular KDE applications that were shipped with the Plasma desktop. However, this release still ships with systemd as the default init system.